Continuing from last time, another sleep-related story. Because it’s about sleep. Or rather, because it’s a story about sleep.
Room Structure
Structure of the Detention Cell
The detention cell has iron bars on the corridor side, where the entrance is located, and there are also iron bars directly opposite. It is designed to be monitored from both the front and the back, possibly to ensure good ventilation. However, due to the structure, it’s hard to get used to the constant surveillance and noise, and it’s difficult to fall asleep at first. The sound of footsteps coming and going… If you end up placing your futon on the corridor side, the noise can be unbearable. It’s not just the footsteps; you can constantly hear the sound of the officers sorting out documents or checking the contents of the newspapers to be issued the next day. Moreover, on the corridor side of the Shinjuku Police Station, you have to sleep while listening to the orchestra of snoring from other cells. Incidentally, I became a victim of this, and also a great perpetrator…
Structure of the Holding Cell
As shown in the header image on this page, the front part of the structure, which is not quite visible in the photo, has a thick wall with an iron door instead of iron bars.
You won’t have trouble sleeping due to footsteps. It is so quiet that you can barely hear the sound of footsteps going back and forth, but you get used to it quickly. Sometimes, an officer peeks through the small window to check if you are asleep.
Lighting
In the detention cell, they call it “lights out,” but it’s actually just dimming the lights. There is a fluorescent light inside the room, and it was so bright at first that it was hard to sleep. Covering your head with the futon or with a cloth due to the brightness is also forbidden. You just have to find a way to sleep despite the brightness. For those who can’t sleep unless it’s completely dark, it must be tough. If it were an LED instead of a fluorescent light, it would be possible to adjust the brightness and color, though.
Incidentally, it seems quite ironic that the Shinjuku Police Station, located in the backyard of Governor Yuriko Koike, who made a big push for replacing lights with LEDs, still uses fluorescent lights throughout. Even during the Great Earthquake, they insisted on switching to LEDs, but the largest police station in Japan has not yet fully adapted.
To add a side note, when I was being interrogated around October 2023, it seemed they were finally beginning the process of replacing the lights with LEDs, so it’s possible that other parts of the Shinjuku Police Station, apart from the detention cell, may have completed the replacement. It’s astonishing that they only started this 12 years after the Great Earthquake of 2011.
Returning to the topic of dimming for sleep, the lights remained on in both the detention cell and the holding cell, making it difficult to sleep without sleeping pills. You have to discreetly slip your arm out of the right sleeve of your sweatshirt, cover your eyes with that sleeve, or use a handkerchief over your eyes to escape the brightness and fall asleep (until you get warned, that’s the only way).
Going to the Toilet in the Middle of the Night
You tiptoe to the toilet to avoid waking everyone up. There are various room rules, such as deciding not to flush the toilet at night if someone is extremely bothered by the flushing sound, or sometimes deciding to flush. If you don’t flush, it obviously smells, so I prefer that people flush, and I would flush myself. Although the flushing sound is inevitable, this is just how it is. In the holding cell, you are instructed to use a pre-filled bucket of water.
If You Wake Up Early
There are times when you wake up about 10 minutes before the 6:30 a.m. wake-up time. At that time, I used to wash my face earlier than everyone else, but it’s better to get permission from the members inside the room. If you happen to wake up someone who prefers to solve things with force, it could lead to a serious situation (speaking from experience).
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